270 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



badly infested, there is as yet no known remedy. Noth- 

 ing can be done but throw the plants out and the soil 

 also, if Roses are again to be planted in the same house. 



The first time I saw this Rose Bug was in 1872. I no- 

 ticed that our Roses, though otherwise healthy, made nr 

 growth. A friend coming along one day, who had sad 

 experience with the insect, asked me to allow him to pull 

 a plant up. At its roots hung scores of the maggots the 

 larvas of the Rose bug. I at once threw out the whole 

 the plants, the soil, and even the bench itself, though the 

 space it covered was ten feet by three hundred, contain- 

 ing nearly three thousand Roses. Fortunately its ravages 

 were confined to that house, so I at once adopted the plan 

 of paying our boys a dollar a hundred for what bugs they 

 could find, working at their dinner hour. This soon sub- 

 dued them, so that for years we have been free from the 

 Rose bug, the greatest pest that the Rose grower has to 

 fight against, particularly if he grows his Roses on the 

 benches for two years. 



The Aphis is one of the most common insects affecting 

 plants. There are quite a number of kinds, showing dif- 

 ferent colors, on different plants. Thus, when it attacks 

 the roots of plants, it is blue; on Roses and most other 

 plants it is green; on the chrysanthemum and a few other 

 plants it is black. 



Hundreds of my amateur friends come to me year after 

 year, with sorrowful tales of their verbenas, asters, etc., 

 which were pictures of health and beauty, but now are 

 one after another sickening and dying, apparently with- 

 out cause. But there was a cause, and in most cases one 

 cause only. The Blue Aphis is at the roots, and the only 

 chance to save them is an application of tobacco water, 

 about the color of strong tea, applied copiously and per- 

 sistently to the roots, for at least a week. 



We have occasionally saved all our stock by this remedy, 

 when used at once, as soon a.3 they were seen to be affected. 



